When they arrived at the office, Reid had already talked to Penelope and was working on a preliminary list of possible groups. He had a couple of them highlighted that he thought were more likely to lead to something but the list was still too long. Currently, he was deleting groups that were out of the geographic profile because logically, a 16 year old teenager could not get far away without stirring the curiosity of others. The location had to be somewhere near the schools or the families' houses or somewhere along the bus route. Finally, the list revealed 18 groups in the nearer Seattle area. "I think we can exclude more once we get the instructors and members list by running background checks on them." Reid leant back, satisfied with his idea.
"We need to take everything into account. It's not just where he finds the boys, how he traces and follows them, there must be some sort of connection. And I am pretty sure we won't find out anything on that car because since it has been involved in so many crashes and none of the matches turned up successful, maybe it's not registered at all...We have no idea if the car itself was stolen beforehand or if it belongs to the Unsub." Morgan interfered.
"Anyways, we have to follow up on that, too!" Hotch answered the dark-skinned man. "Maybe it gives us a lead on something...We cannot afford to not do that. We don't have any idea what happened or will happen to those boys."
"I think we can assume that the perpetrator is self assured and also gives a lot of assurance to those boys. How else would it be possible to kill the parents in front of the boys' eyes and get away without them going public? Even having them following him? So maybe he is a person of authority, like a teacher or instructor himself? It sounds like a solid theory..." Emily said.
"Could be, it sounds about right, but even though this might limit down the list of groups to check out, it will still take too much time. Right now, we have to suspect that the Unsub doesn't wait for us to find out more. There is absolutely no way of knowing if there are going to be more victims." Morgan said.
Suddenly, the phone rang and Morgan put it on speaker. "Talk to us, baby girl." He said.
"Alright. So, what we know so far is that there has been an accident 7 years ago during the Easter Holidays, both parents dead and the then 16 year old boy missing. Now, the funny thing here – or better – the horrible thing is that the car was first opened like a tuna can by the impact and then partly flooded. The car crashed into a construction truck which was loaded with heavy metal gear and a water tank which tore and emptied its content into the inside of the car. Not enough to kill, but I just thought that it might help you guys...it's one of those weird things..."
"Well thought, Garcia!" Rossi said. "I think that this is important indeed. You know, that sounds like some form of baptism...imagine this: the boy takes this event as his coming-of-age, his rite of passage and the water from above is the cleaning, he must have felt like the chosen one in this moment." He paused for a moment as if to catch up with his own thoughts. "I think that was the most impressing moment in his life and he wants to bring the same revelation to the boys he thinks he has been freeing..."
"Garcia?"
"Yes!" came the quick response. Hotchner imagined the blond-haired technical team member with her bejewelled hands hovering over the keyboard, ready to go.
"I think this is our Unsub. Get his record, find out about his life. I am pretty sure that he didn't go public since he was reported missing but there must be traces, incongruities that might lead us to him. An address would be nice! And try to find out something about the car."
"Alright, I'm on it! By the way, the instructors and members list Reid asked for is on its way...and I also took the liberty of including their fact sheets and police histories of recent employees and anterior as well." she said and hung up.